The first successful prophylaxis of measles with convalescent serum was reported by Cenci in 1901.1 The popularity of this method, as indicated by the number of reports in the literature, began about 1920. In Germany many of the studies were conducted by Degkwitz,2 in France by Debré3 and in England by Gunn.4 In the United States the use of the serum was introduced by Park and Zingher5 in 1916. Additional studies demonstrating the prophylactic effectiveness of measles convalescent serum have been contributed by many workers.6 A complete review of the literature up to 1931 on prophylaxis of measles with convalescent serum has been compiled by Thomson and Thomson.7
It is difficult to evaluate the results of prophylaxis of measles reported by many investigators because of different methods employed, lack of certain essential information about groups observed and absence of suitable controls. Thus, it